Institute for Free Speech
Protecting Speech, Press, Assembly & Petition Rights
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Court Ruling on Independent Expenditures Creates New Risks for Groups
A recent federal district court ruling threw out a long-standing Federal Election Commission independent expenditure donor reporting rule. There are many unanswered questions about the impact and reach of the decision. Some of these questions raise very serious First Amendment concerns about associational and donor privacy.
NAACP v. Alabama: When “Transparency” Becomes Censorship
In order for civic groups to be effective, Americans must be able to associate with their fellow citizens
privately. People behave differently when they are being watched, and this is especially true when people are monitored by the very government they are trying to reform. The right to privacy is therefore essential to the protection of First Amendment freedoms. To understand the vital relationship between privacy rights and freedom of association, we need only look to the landmark 1958 Supreme Court case, NAACP v. Alabama.
Did a D.C. Federal Court Fail the “Major Purpose Test”?
A recent opinion by Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the federal District Court in Washington, D.C. poses new risks for advocacy groups and their supporters. The ruling erodes a constitutional limitation on the power of the government to compel Americans speaking about policy issues to register themselves as political committees (PACs) with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti: Protecting the Right to Hear Others
Can the government silence speech about an election simply because the speaker is a corporation? Can it deny voters the opportunity to hear a corporation’s views on issues? Forty years ago, the Supreme Court answered no in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti.
SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission: Protecting the First Amendment Rights of Americans
If one person can speak about a candidate without limit, can Congress ban two, three, or hundreds of people from joining together to do the same? That was the simple question presented in the case SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission. Fortunately, a unanimous 2010 D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision said no, such a limit would violate the First Amendment. Americans can now form independent expenditure groups to raise and spend money on campaign speech without limits. Learn more about this important case.
Find Recent Political Speech Developments
Comments to National Park Service on Proposed Rule Regarding Demonstrations and Special Events in the National Capital Region, 83 Fed. Reg. 40460 (Aug. 15, 2018)